Starting January 22, Boost Mobile (Sprint Nextel’s prepaid brand) will offer a $50 all-you-can-talk/text/web-browse plan in an effort to better compete with other smaller, regional niche carriers like MetroPCS and Cricket. Boost is hoping to draw in more budget-conscious consumers with this contract-free unlimited offering.
“Wireless consumers know there’s a lot of wrong out there – activation fees, overage charges and extra costs for services like voicemail and roaming. Unlike some other prepaid services, our new flat-rate plan will not include any of these charges; what you see is what you get,” said Matt Carter, president of Boost Mobile. “The Boost Mobile Monthly Unlimited plan offers consumers straightforward pricing and predictable payments on a true nationwide network with no restrictions of a local calling area.”
The plan, creatively named Monthly Unlimited, includes:
- Unlimited daytime, evening and weekend phone calls
- Unlimited texts
- Unlimited wireless Web
- NO home calling areas, so no roaming charges
- Unlimited walkie-talkie calls to Baja California, Mexico included
The big “news” here is not the offering of an unlimited plan as Boost has already been providing this type of service, but rather it’s the price. Currently, Boost offers three tiers of UNLTD plans: $50 unlimited talk; $60 unlimited talk and text; and $70 unlimited talk, text and web (pricing for SF, before tax/fees). Starting January 22, it appears that Boost will replace these with Monthly Unlimited, effectively dropping $20 off the monthly total. But, for $49 less than its big brother’s buffet-plan (Sprint’s $99 unlimited talk/text/data), and no contract, Boost appears to at least have a good recipe for success.